Tell the Truth
by FairyLightHappiness
Summary: Five years after A is finally caught. A court hearing about the potential release of Charlotte brings the Pretty Little Liars back to Rosewood. With Alison asking them to lie, will the liars tell the truth? - One Shot


**One-Shot: Tell the Truth for Once**

_A/N: This was once a one-shot under my old account. I never got why the pretty little liars didn't tell the truth about how they felt about Charlotte's release. This woman tortured them and I'm pretty sure killed or nearly killed someone. If I was them, no matter how much Alison begged, I'd say I'd never wanted her to be released._

Once again, the four pretty little liars were stood in their old hometown of Rosewood. It had been nearly five years since any of them had stepped back and here they were, where it all began in their old high school, at the whim of their old friend, Alison DiLaurentis.

Alison was standing at the front of the classroom, where she now worked, and the four pretty little liars were standing and sitting around the classroom. Nearest the door, leaning against a table was Hanna, to her left was Spencer, then Aria who were both sitting on tables and lastly there was Emily, leaning against the window, looking out at the flowers that bloomed in the school's courtyard.

"Charlotte is getting the help she never had when she was little. Five years of treatment undoing all the damage." Alison said. "I visited her, I spent time with her, getting to know her as my sister. She even stayed at my house for a weekend last Christmas…"

"They let her out?" Hanna interrupted. Her arms were crossed against her chest, she turned towards Alison in disbelief at what she had just said.

"It was a supervised visit." Alison replied, trying to keep calm. She knew this would be difficult, after all her friends had gone through.

"So," Spencer said, "Charlotte is all better now, what does this have to do with us?" She asked. Alison took a deep breath; this was the difficult part.

"At the hearing tomorrow, the judge will decide if she should be released… and they want to hear from people who were involved." Alison explained, looking hopeful at her friends.

"Victim statements" Spencer clarified, after they hadn't just been involved. They had been her victims, months of torture and sick games.

"Statements of support." Alison corrected. "Statements that she isn't a threat to anybody. That you guys are not afraid of her anymore. There is no reason to be afraid, you heard her story. We all went through this together."

The silence that followed was deafening as they all stared at Alison in shock.

"What _we _went through?" Aria questioned. "No. What_ we…" _ She gestured to Hanna, Spencer, herself and Emily. "Went through. _We _have the scars to prove it too." She stressed the we in her statement.

"You're asking us to give a get-out-of-jail-free-card to someone who tried to kill us" Hanna said

"She's in hospital, Hanna, not jail." Alison corrected. "But, that's why your statements would mean so much to her and me." She looked at the girls pleading with them to say they would do it, all she wanted was her sister back.

"You do realise what you're asking us to do, you want us to forgive Charlotte" Emily said speaking for the first time.

"I don't care if you forgive her…" Alison started to say, but she was cut off by Hanna, who had stopped leaning against the table and start to walk up to her.

"What she's asking us to do, is to lie. To lie about how we feel, to say no we aren't afraid of the woman who tried to kill us, who tortured us, who locked us up and forced us to play sick games," Hanna was shaking as she stood in-front of Alison. "I'm tired of lying for you, for me for everyone. I'm telling the truth." She turned to her friends. "For once, let's just tell the truth".

"Please… please do this" Alison whispered. "Do this for me?"

"Pretty please?" Spencer said, who had walked up to Hanna and was now pulling her back. "With sugar on top?"

"What?" Alison said confused.

"That's what you say on the playground to exact a favour. We're not on the playground anymore, Alison. We haven't been for a long time. Now I don't know about the other girls, but I am here, not because of you or your letter, but because the courts asked me too. She may be your sister and your only family left, but she is the thing of my nightmares and I refuse to sit there and lie to the judge. Now if your finished…" Spencer said as she turned towards Hanna and Aria. "Shall we go?"

The three of them turned to Emily who shook her head.

"We'll wait outside" Aria said as they left the room. Emily moved away from the window and leant against the table with Alison.

"I can't Alison, I'm sorry. I still have nightmares as well, that I'm back in that dollhouse. That A is still after us. I can't sit there and tell them that everything is okay. I'm sorry" Emily said, and she stood up and walked out of the room to the other girls.

OOOO000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000OOOO

The day of Charlotte's hearing had arrived and all four of the girls sat in a row in the court room, they listened as Alison stood in front of the four judges and pleaded Charlotte's case for her release. In her head Alison was holding onto the small glimmer of hope that the girls would see how much Charlotte's release would mean to her and do this one small thing for her, after all it wasn't like they were going to be in Rosewood with Charlotte. As Alison finished her piece and returned to her seat, Spencer was called.

"I'm sure that you've read all the documents about who Charlotte is and what she did to us. Those things are easy to move on from and although I may look like I have, mentally I'm haunted by those events. I'm still as terrified of Charlotte and what she is capable as I was five years ago. Please don't release her. That's all."

The judges nodded and made a few notes about her statement before calling Hanna forward.

"I was angry, for a long time, at Charlotte. But now, every morning I wake up. I drink coffee and I walk outside. It's either sunny or raining, but I'm there, free. For years I thought I wasn't scared anymore. But hearing that Charlotte had a chance to be free, that once again she could step outside unsupervised just like I can. That terrifies me to my bones. That the nightmare we faced five years ago could return.

After Hanna, it was Emily's turn to stand up.

"My dad taught me that fear is natural. It's a good instinct and although he told me that you can decide not to be afraid. He is wrong, I cannot just switch off my fear I have for Charlotte. I still wake up every night from nightmares of what she did to us. I hate walking alone because I'm scared that she is going to come and start her games again. Charlotte being free, I wouldn't feel safe, not even if I was on the opposite side of the world."

Lastly it was Aria's turn. She stared down at the words she had written, everything had tumbled through her mind.

"Alison and Dr Rollins have told us how well Charlotte's being doing. How rapidly she's been able to integrate herself into the general hospital population. They feel strongly that…"

Aria was cut off by the door opening and Ezra Fitzgerald walked into the room. "I'm sorry." He whispered before taking a seat.

"Miss Montgomery"? One of the judges said, bringing Aria's head back around to look at them.

"Sorry, um… they feel strongly…" Aria was once again cut off by the judges this time.

"Miss Montgomery, we have read the same reports that you have. The doctors and Alison can speak for themselves. You are here to tell us if you'd feel safe should Charlotte DiLaurentis leave the hospital.

"No." Aria whispered. "No, I wouldn't feel safe. I was on the redline going to Braintree and the train stopped in the tunnel between stations. The power went out and it was dark., no not dark. Black, it was Black. And I was back in every box, in every dark tight space that "A" ever put me in and I couldn't breathe. I could hear a girl crying and I thought good, that someone else was as scared out her mind as I was. But, the lights came back on and every single person was staring at me. Because I was the girl that was crying. I don't want Charlotte released. Ever." Aria took her seat with Spencer, Hanna and Emily.

"Here comes the last nail in the coffin." Hanna whispered to the girls, as Mona stepped forward to speak.

"I thought I could do this. But I can't. I've been listening to all my friends, on how they don't want Charlotte to ever be released. I wish I could hate her like they do. But I can't. I can't because I know what she went through. I was in Radley Sanatorium. I was in there for months. Charlotte was in there for years and years. Being in that place is what twisted her all out of shape. Let her out. Let her go home and live her life as I have been able to do."

OOOO000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000OOOO

Alison watched as the rain fell outside her window. She had heard from Emily that the girls were meeting at the Radley before heading back to their homes. She didn't understand why the girls hadn't lied for her, as they had done so many times before. They knew how much family was important to them, why couldn't they let her have the same thing?

Charlotte DiLaurentis wasn't released from the hospital. The judge had decided that the fear that Charlotte was fall into her old A ways, was too high of a risk. A few weeks after this ruling, Charlotte had killed herself. She had written in a letter to Alison that she couldn't wait another five years to be released.

Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily all moved on from Charlotte in their own time and although the rest of their lives would be up and down, it was all untouched by A. They were finally free. Only Emily remained in infrequent contact with Alison, but it was difficult, accepting that their friend had tried to make them downplay the pain and fear they had.


End file.
